Five on Your Side's Mike Rush confronts an offender

Fairview Heights (KSDK) - Getting up in the middle of the night or camping out for days are pretty extreme ways to go for a bargain.

However, as Five on Your Side's Mike Rush learned, some shoppers are even willing to break the law in search of a good deal.

They're able-bodied people willing to steal handicapped parking spots from those who really need them. And as Rush found out, some tell tall tales when they're busted doing it.

Almost as valuable as the deals are the parking spots to get them on this busy, Black Friday bustle.

Bob Campbell started looking for parking perpetrators bright and early.

"The very first I checked this morning was a young lady that was using a handicapped placard that belonged to her aunt," said Campbell.

Campbell is an Illinois Secretary of State Police Investigator, one of several across the state spending the weekend busting bogus handicapped spot parkers.

Bernie Holdener, a double amputee below the knees is glad to see this kind of justice.

Holdener said, "They park here because it's closer but yet then somebody else that comes in maybe doesn't shop that day because they can't get out of the car."

In Illinois, the placards tell a story that helps investigators. For instance, if a placard belongs to a man, there is a hole punched in a certain area. Also, holes are punched to indicate the year the person issued the placard was born.

A placard investigators took notice of was issued to a woman born in 1941. But the placard showed it expired in 2010, so Investigator Campbell staked the car out to wait for the driver to leave a store in Fairview Heights, Illinois.

It was a young woman, as we were still shooting video near her car.

Rush: It expired in 2010.

Lady: No, it expired in 2014.

Rush: Are you born in 1941?

Lady: This is my mom and me and her are in there.

Rush: She's here?

Lady: Yeah.

Come to find out, none of what she said is true as Investigator Campbell confirmed.

Campbell: So, you're not, you didn't tell me the truth?"

Lady: No, I said she was in the store. But honestly, she's at another store.

Campbell: She's in another store?

Lady: yeah.

Campbell: So, you shouldn't be here.

And for her actions, a freshly written ticket.

The woman faces a fine of up to 500 dollars and a suspended license for 30 days.